The seeds of the hostility and anger voiced over a proposed contract that hands over the maintenance of the Boulder Turnpike to a private firm that will also collect tolls on the highway were planted two decades ago.

Or it was in 2009, depending on your politics.

People do agree that public-private partnerships formed to build and manage Colorado roads are likely here to stay.

"The public will soon wake up that this is an expensive way to solve a problem," said Miller Hudson, a public affairs consultant and former executive director of the Colorado Intermountain Guideway Authority. "But it's the only tool in the toolbox available to Colorado right now."

The proposed contract with Plenary Roads Denver, a consortium of six companies with expertise in financing and construction, is for the completion of the second phase of the $425 million U.S. 36 Managed Lanes project. The company will also maintain the entire corridor, including snow and ice removal, until 2063.

This is the first public-private partnership in Colorado's history and also gives the firm maintenance responsibilities along Interstate 25 from U.S. 36 to downtown Denver.

The deal calls for Plenary Roads Denver — which has offices in Australia, Canada and Singapore — to collect all revenues from the toll lanes currently being built in each direction of the turnpike. Existing general-purpose lanes on the highway will be widened and will remain free for motorists.

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The pact, which was released to the public on Friday, has drawn fire from residents along the corridor and some lawmakers, who see it as being full of pitfalls for taxpayers.

"Are we this cash-strapped that we hand over authority of our roadways to a private firm?" State Sen. Matt Jones, D-Louisville, asked last week during a joint session of the legislative transportation committee.

"Personally, I'm not altogether comfortable with a public-private partnership, but as a public official, I am able to live with it," said Will Toor, former Boulder mayor and Boulder County commissioner.

Toor was among those who spearheaded efforts to expand U.S. 36 to allow Bus Rapid Transit and other needed improvements on the highway, which began as a toll road in the 1950s.

Many politicians and policy experts point to the passage in 1992 of the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights
for starting public-private partnerships in Colorado.

TABOR, an amendment to the state constitution, prevents local and state governments from raising taxes without a vote of the taxpayers.

That essentially halted any more spending on public projects, including roads, said Hudson, who helped study the feasibility of a high-speed monorail between Denver and Eagle County Airport along Interstate 70.

"Placing the taxpayer's foot on the brake of government growth and runaway spending sounded like a grand idea," said Hudson, who recently wrote a guest column on the U.S. 36 controversy for the Colorado Statesman. "The reality have proven a slow strangulation of public services, which pleases the anti-government crowd."

To skirt TABOR and to boost funding for road projects, the Democratic-controlled legislature in 2009 passed FASTER, or the Funding Advancement for Surface Transportation and Economic Recovery Act. The measure hiked registration fees by about $40 a year for a typical vehicle, generating an estimated $250 million a year for road and bridge repairs.

The bill also created the High- Performance Transportation Enterprise to help pursue public-private partnerships for road projects.

HPTE already oversees the tolling of the I-25 Express Lanes which stretch along a roughly 7- mile section of I-25 between downtown Denver and U.S. 36.

But Republicans last week took shots at the HPTE program, saying it didn't include provisions that allowed public oversight of transportation projects.

"We tried to stop SBO9-108, known as FASTER, but the Democrats wouldn't listen," Senate Minority Leader Bill Cadman said last week. "The legislation created unelected commissions and empowered them to secretly contract with private companies."

CDOT dutifully followed the orders crafted in the partisan bill, Cadman added. "But now the Democrats' secret is out, the public is displaying the same outrage that we exhibited when we tried to stop this legislation."

"I don't want to say 'I told you so,' " he said, "but ... "

Democrats and proponents of the U.S. 36 contract agree the pact should have been available sooner. But the project itself, they say, is worthwhile, given today's fiscal restraints.

"In this era of declining revenues, (public-private partnerships) have been the only viable alternative for advancing many of the state's most important transportation projects," said Tony Milo, executive director of the Colorado Contractors Association. If not for public-private partnerships, "these critical and much-needed projects such as the U.S. 36 project, would not happen for many years into the future, if ever."

Lockheed says object part of 'sensor technology' testing that ended ThursdayWhat the heck is that thing? It's fair to assume that question was on the minds of many people who traveled along Colo. 128 south of Boulder this week if they happened to catch a glimpse of what appeared to be a large, silver projectile perched alongside the highway and pointed north toward town.

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